The small town of Erie, Colorado narrowly voted down an “emergency” one-year fracking moratorium in a 5-4 vote in January.
Erie trustees say instead of imposing a moratorium, they will work with the oil and gas industry to address community concerns about noise, truck traffic, and setbacks from housing while allowing oil and gas development to continue.
This is the latest defeat for environmental lobbyists who have attempted to end fracking in Colorado through a series of municipal and county bans and moratoriums. Erie joined Loveland, Longmont, Fort Collins, Lafayette, and Broomfield in striking down or overturning fracking bans and moratoriums.
One Erie trustee said his rejection of the moratorium was based on concerns about high litigation costs potentially arising from the act. “We were elected to represent our citizens and do what we honestly believe is best for the town, and I don’t believe that enacting a moratorium is what is best for the town,” trustee Waylon Schutt said in...

Energy and Environment

After successfully pushing for $100 million in special interest Florida renewable energy subsidies, the solar power lobby hopes to subvert the Florida Tea Party and get it to work for still more government favoritism. Florida’s grassroots conservatives should see through the ruse and just say no to more Solyndra-style chicanery.
Seeking to take advantage of grassroots conservatives’ natural – and justified – antipathy to government picking winners and losers through state-protected monopolies,...

A worldwide oil glut has caused the price of crude oil to fall below $50 a barrel since topping $100 a barrel in June. The price of gas at the pump has since averaged around $2.07 per gallon nationally for the past several months, far below the April 29, 2014 closing average retail price of $3.70 per gallon. That significant reduction of pain at the pump has translated into more money in people’s pockets and increased sales for certain businesses, such as convenience stores, airlines,...